A wheel display apparatus for use in games and the like typically comprises a wheel and a pointer. The wheel may be mechanical or rendered on a video screen. The wheel is divided into a plurality of wedges bearing respective awards such as credit values, currency amounts, bonus features, number of free plays of another game segment, etc. For example, a 360 degree wheel may be divided into twelve equally sized wedges with each wedge spanning 30 degrees. To determine an outcome, the pointer may be stationary and aimed at a 12 o'clock position of the wheel as the wheel is spun about its central axis and stopped. The stationary pointer designates a wedge that lands at the 12 o'clock position. Alternatively, the wheel may be stationary as the pointer is spun about the central axis of the wheel and stopped to designate a wedge. The game provides the award associated with the designated wedge.
If the wheel display apparatus is incorporated into a regulated electronic gaming machine such as a slot machine, the game is executed by game-logic circuitry. Using a random outcome generator such as a random number generator (RNG), the game-logic circuitry determines the outcome of the wheel spin prior to spinning the wheel and then spins the wheel to the predetermined outcome. Some games permit multiple spins of the wheel to yield multiple awards. Such multiple spins, however, require the game-logic circuitry to operate the random outcome generator multiple times to generate multiple random outcomes and to successively spin the wheel to each predetermined outcome, thereby increasing usage of processing and/or memory resources. As the game industry matures, the creativity and ingenuity required to improve the operation of apparatus used in games grows accordingly.